For the Love of Freddy Krueger

I want to talk about the man of my dreams. Sigh. No, not Brad Pitt, Freddy Krueger.

Yes, he’s not your typical matinee idol, but he definitely stole my heart back in the 80s. Stole it and probably ate it, knowing Freddy. What a boy!

But seriously, the First Nightmare on Elm Street movie (1984) really did haunt my dreams for some time after I saw it. It was literally the stuff of nightmares, and in his first outing Freddy was a genuinely frightening foe. Towards the end of the core series of films he had become almost entirely a comedy character, but in Nightmare 1 Freddy was dark and menacing.

Nightmare 1 is a great example of director Wes Craven being ahead of the game in bringing new life to the horror genre. It’s a slasher movie, but a slasher with a real difference.

Even if you haven’t seen the films, you’ll still almost certainly be familiar with Freddy. In life, a child killer burnt to death by the parents of his victims, now a ghoul who hunts and murders the children (or teens) of Elm Street in their dreams. He wields a now iconic glove with razor claws and wears a trademark fedora hat and stripy jumper. His killing methods are inventive and often very bloody.

Probably the bloodiest scene appears in Nightmare 1, and involves the character of Glen (Johnny Depp) being sucked into his bed, which then spurts out an endless torrent of the red stuff. The effect was created using a revolving room on set and gallons of fake blood, which poured dangerously close to electrics, no doubt putting the lives of crew and cast in danger. But these were the days of risky film making, before CGI.

The biggest criticism of Nightmare 1 is the ending. Just as everything is nicely resolved, we’re given a non-sensical end scene where all the main protagonist Nancy’s (Heather Langerkamp) friends and mother are alive with Nancy’s mum cheerily waving them off from the doorstep, before suddenly being dragged by Freddy through the front door’s small glass panel. The scene seems tagged on, and that’s because it was. Apparently the studio bosses couldn’t decide on which ending they wanted, so they went for both!The subsequent series of films had its ups and downs. Part two is possibly the most divisive. It breaks many of the rules established in part one (at one point Freddy possesses the main character and creates chaos at a poolside party) plus has an overtly gay sadomasochistic theme running throughout. When you watch the film now, it’s hard to believe director, Jack Sholder, was oblivious to these overtones. In one scene the male gym teacher, trussed up in full leather, is dragged by an invisible Freddy into the school showers, stripped naked and whipped with ropes in front of the also naked main protagonist. Gay? Really, I hadn’t noticed.

In Freddy’s Third outing, subtitled Dream Warriors, we’re back on track with an inventive storyline centred around a clinic for teens whose mental health is being affected by reoccurring dreams. Plus it features the welcome return of the original film’s heroine, Nancy.

After part 3, things go gradually downhill, with laughs far outweighing screams, and the original series ends on a low with The Final Nightmare: Freddy’s Dead in 1991.

But this wasn’t the end for Freddy, and, rather than making a comeback in a lacklustre attempt to reboot the series, Wes Craven returned to, once again, breathe new life into both the franchise and the horror genre. New Nightmare was a post-modernist, self-aware horror in which actress Heather Langerkamp, playing herself, and her son are haunted by a spirit (looking very much like Freddy) created by the dark energy of the movie character. (or something along those lines). Basically Freddy is back and he’s not here to get laughs.

This was meta horror before the term was even invented and was a less commercially successful precursor to Craven’s Scream franchise.

If we’d been spared the silliness of Freddy VS Jason (2003) this would have been an excellent final bow for Freddy, but even this forgettable foray into franchise blending is preferable to the pointless Nightmare on Elm Street remake of 2010. Let’s not even discuss this insult to Freddy’s memory.

Suffice to say, Freddy, as played by legendary Robert Englund, is one of my favourite horror icons. At his best, a sinister blend of threat, thrills and humour and, even at his worst, an entertaining murderous trickster.

Love you Freddy!